Tag

house

Salt Dough Pine Cone Fairy Houses

Salt dough and nature items are our favorites materials to create with hands down. I don’t know what is more fun, gathering the nature or pressing it into the dough and seeing what new and exciting things that you can come up with. There are so many amazing possibilities. We have made nature islands with branches and leaves and pine cone creatures with pipe cleaners. And do you remember when we made those adorable fairies with acorns, sticks and clay? Well those little fairies needed a home and we couldn’t wait to make them one. These sweet pine cone fairy houses are simple and enchanting.

Pine cone and salt dough fairy houses. Magical nature arts and crafts for kids

 

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Wood Slab Leprechaun House

My daughter has had a lot of questions about leprechauns. “Are they like an elf?” “Where do they live?” “Do they live in gingerbread houses?” These are just a few of the questions that I have received from my little girl in recent weeks. We looked up some pictures of leprechauns and where they live. “Mama, the leprechaun’s house looks like my fairy door.” Leprechauns and their homes are indeed enchanting and magical just like the fairies that my daughter loves so much. Wood Slab Leprechaun house and door. St Patrick's Day arts and crafts for kids. Paint, stickers, nature and gemstones made these pretty doors. A fairy house could be made as well.

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Because of all of this, I thought that making a leprechaun door would be fun for us to do.

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40+ Gingerbread Crafts, Activities and Recipes

Over 40 gingerbread inspired arts and crafts, activities, sensory and recipes. Gingerbread house and gingerbread men projects for kids for the winter & Christmas

I’m sure that I have mentioned it before, but I love gingerbread. It is one of my absolute favorite things about this time of year. I look forward to baking it, smelling it, eating it and my daughter and I have fun doing arts and crafts projects inspired by it.  Here are some wonderful gingerbread inspired ideas to welcome in the holiday season.

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Mixed Media Winter Birdhouse

We have been on a bit of a mixed media winter art kick over the past couple of weeks. My daughter really enjoys it and we have created some beautiful pieces together.

Mixed media art birdhouse with chickadee or a cardinal - Use tissue paper, acrylics, watercolors, crayons, markers or construction paper to build this pretty winter / Christmas scene. Kid's and preschooler's arts and crafts

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The beauty of mixed media is there are so many options in creating a piece of art. You can use paint, markers, ink, crayons, newspaper, construction paper, tissue paper or embellishments such as buttons or glitter to create your masterpiece.

We have been loving making them and here is our latest. 

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Design Your Own Gingerbread House

Every year, we bake and make a gingerbread house. This year would be no different. We baked for two days straight, making batch after batch of gingerbread for our house.Draw and bake your own gingerbread house. This is a fun idea for the kids for Christmas or winter. This would be great for a party. Holiday arts and crafts for preschoolers or kids. Baking, cooking with kids

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Our gingerbread house is going to be a replica of our house and ended up being a larger undertaking than we expected.

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In between batches of gingerbread my daughter got antsy and made her own gingerbread out of construction paper. It came out so sweet and I loved her button accents.

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3 Little Pigs House Activity

Three Little Pigs kid's Craft & activity - Build a straw, stick & brick house

I am sure most of you already know the classic tale of the three little pigs.  You know how the story goes. Those cute little pigs set out into the world and each built themselves a house out of a different building material. If you tune in with us often, you know that we read a lot in our house. If given the choice between books & just about anything else, my daughter will choose books every time. We have been reading a lot of Dr. Seuss lately and also hitting the nursery rhymes. ‘The Three Little Pigs’ has been a new one for her. She huffs and puffs right along with the story.

Reading about those little pigs inspired us to build our own pig houses. This is not a new idea by any means, but it is a fun one & a great way to relate to the story.

Three Little Pigs kid's Craft & activity - Build a straw, stick & brick house.

We gathered sticks outside and then cut up foam board for the bricks. I found old craft wheat that worked perfectly for our straw.

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We built our house bases out of cardboard for the body & construction paper for the roofs. I rolled plain play dough out on the houses for the brick & sticks and left the house meant for the straw plain.

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I gave my daughter the 3 houses & let her press the brick pieces & sticks into place.

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We used glue to make our straw house.

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While working on their project try discussing the story with them. Ask them which was the strongest house, have them put the houses in sequence according to the story or even read the book to them while they build.

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My daughter liked building her houses. She told me that she liked building the dough houses best. I think the brick house was her favorite.

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Popsicle Stick Gingerbread House Ornaments

Popsicle stick gingerbread ornament - Christmas arts and crafts activities for kids. Craft sticks and buttons

As you know, we are staying with my husband’s aunt as we await the completion of our home. There is a sweet 2-year-old that lives with her & my daughter & her have become two peas in a pod. My daughter has been taking on a big sister role. She has been trying to teach and at times gets a little bossy, but it is adorable to watch. They spend a lot of time drawing and reading together & I spend a lot of time doing both with them as well. Every time they draw together my little one always asks her friend “What are you drawing?” The answer is usually the same “a house”. She loves to draw houses.

Houses are fun & easy to make and with the holiday season approaching, when I think houses, I think gingerbread.

The idea was that I wanted the girls to make gingerbread house ornaments out of Popsicle sticks. My first design I liked, but it was more time-consuming than what I had wanted for a simple craft & I did not want to repeat it several times.

Craft stick house

I made these simpler houses instead.

I asked the girls what color they wanted their houses.

I cut squares out of construction paper in the color of their choice & glued Popsicle sticks around them like shown.

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I cut out a triangle for a roof & lined the sides with sticks as well.

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I glued the square over the triangle as shown.

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I glued a loop of yarn around the back of each for hanging. When all the glue was dry. I gave both children their houses & let them decorate. They used buttons & markers.

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They both made lovely ornaments.

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My daughter wanted to hang hers right away. We do have a tree yet, but we hung it on the door knob for her.

Popsicle stick gingerbread ornament - Christmas arts and crafts activities for kids. Craft sticks and buttons

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Haunted House Crafts

Haunted House Shape Craft - Halloween Crafts for kids

I love doing crafts with my daughter. It is always fun to see what she can do. One of my favorite crafts to do with her is shape crafts. I love to watch what she will construct and listen to her tell the stories about what she just made. Last night we took some of those shapes & used them to form haunted houses. Here’s how…

Cut out a bunch of shapes as shown. You will need two shapes for your house base & tower, two triangles for your roofs & two rectangles for chimneys. Cut small squares & rectangles out of yellow paper for the windows.

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Glue your house base in place.

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Glue on your roof. Draw a cross in the middle of your yellow squares to form the windows & then glue them in place as well.

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Glue your tower next to your house & add the chimneys.

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Cut out a circle to form a moon & glue it in place. Add googly eyes to finish off your haunted houses.

IMG_8670 Haunted House Shape Craft - Halloween Crafts for kids

These houses came out so cute that it inspired one more haunted house craft.

Footprint Haunted House

Paint your child’s foot in all black. Stamp it onto a piece of paper & let it dry.

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Paint a door & windows in with yellow.

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Use white paint to add details to your house.

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Paint in a roof or draw one in with marker.

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Paint or draw in bats, a tree & extra details to finish off your haunted little foot.

Footprint haunted house craft - Halloween crafts for kids

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Gingerbread Haunted House

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My child has very little concept of time. It is hilarious because she knows the names of the days of the week and she will use them with no real understanding of when that day actually is. She will reminisce about a something that happened weeks ago & retell it saying that it just happened yesterday. It is no surprise then that she does not have much of a grasp on the seasons or when the holidays fall. Most of the summer Mai had been asking me to make a gingerbread house. Trying to explain to my daughter that we were in the wrong season for gingerbread is pointless. Last week she was especially insistent, so what is a mommy to do?  I promised her that we would make gingerbread houses. To keep with the theme of the season, we made haunted houses. I found this great recipe for pumpkin gingerbread online.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Pumpkin-Spice-Bread-Halloween-House/?ALLSTEPS

We doubled the recipe for our house.

I measured out the ingredients & handed them to Mai. She sang Patty Cake as she mixed & rolled out her dough. My girl loves to cook.

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We drew out templates earlier in the day, stocked up on candy & made our icing.

Royal Icing

2 eggs whites

1 box of confectioners sugar

Beat eggs until frothy & mix in the sugar until smooth. Add the icing to your piping bag.

As we were working with raw egg, I also used store bought icing for Mai to use when she decorated.

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With the leftover gingerbread I rolled out a haunted tree.

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After you have baked your gingerbread, be sure to trim and straighten edges. Cut out any windows or doors.

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Generously apply icing & assemble your house. Use items around your house to hold your pieces upright and pushed together.

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Once your house is assembled, you can start decorating. We used After 5 thin mints for our roof eaves

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Mai helped out by decorating the tree with some M & Ms.

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We added orange gum drop slices, gummy worms, candy corns, licorice whips, Hershey kisses, pumpkin Peeps, M&Ms & mini Kit Kats to our house.

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While mommy was in charge of decorating the front, Mai got to do the sides. She hid M&M’s & gummy worms in the house through the windows. We gave her a bowl of icing to dip her candy in to make it easier. She dipped the candy in the icing & then decorated her face more than the house.

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It was a lot of work, but it was a fun project for me & the munchkin. I can’t wait for Christmas now to do it again.

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